Re: META: Trolling?

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Thu Aug 15 2002 - 09:23:02 MDT


On Thursday, August 15, 2002, at 10:05 am, Brian D Williams wrote:

>
>> From: Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com>
>
>> That is not the complaint. Changing people's minds is one of the
>> main reasons we debate on this list. Most people would be
>> thrilled if their carefully crafted arguments changed the minds of
>> other people.
>
> Agreed.
>
>> The complaint is when someone says, "OK, I fooled you all. I
>> never really believed what I claimed. I just wanted to see all
>> the responses I could trigger. I'm not really going to debate any
>> of your well-researched posts, since I really don't care about the
>> position I claimed. You wasted your time researching and
>> responding to me. Thanks for playing."
>
> Strawman argument, this is not what I said at all, what I said and
> I quote was:
>
> "Okay, I confess, I was being deliberately provocative in my
> response."
>
> Not the same thing at all.
>
>> What's worse is when people argue that this is a useful technique
>> and they plan to keep fooling us in the future. It makes me
>> question whether I should put any effort into responding or not.
>
> It's a standard debating tactic that I learned and delighted
> philosopy professors with in college.
>
> Since it is not well understood nor appreciated here I will not use
> it again.
>
> Fair?

Very fair. Thanks.

--
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP		<www.HarveyNewstrom.com>
Principal Security Consultant	<www.Newstaff.com>


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